Long lunch causes confusion, outrage

Reaction negative to Cuomo giving paid hour for World Cup

Published 8:42 pm, Thursday, June 26, 2014

Albany

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to give state workers an hour off to watch the U.S. play Germany in Thursday's World Cup match drew cries of foul from a constituency that's every bit as passionate as soccer fans: public employees.

The gubernatorial bequest of free time was prompted by U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann's digital distribution of a form note that he suggested could be given to bosses by workers hoping to watch the game, which started at noon.

Cuomo responded with an open letter to Klinsmann: "The State of New York stands strongly behind Team USA," he wrote. "Therefore, I am approving an extra hour for an extended lunch today for every New York State Employee ... so they can root Team USA on to victory."

"New York believes that we will win," Cuomo wrote. (The state turned out to be wrong: Germany won 1-0, though Team USA advanced to the next round of competition.)

But while owners of candy shops can simply lock up for an extra hour at midday, New York state's executive agencies are a slightly more complex workplace, with more than 125,000 employees who are rarely shy about expressing their displeasure with management.

Cuomo's press office sent out the announcement about 15 minutes before the first kick. A brief item on the Capitol Confidential blog posted minutes later began to attract complaints almost immediately.

"Really? I am at lunch and wasn't told this," said a commenter identified as JAB. "So I guess I will have my normal HALF AN HOUR unpaid lunch break."

"The letter says people can take the time. It does not say that employees do not have to charge the time," said regular commenter Chester Snodgrass, raising the prospect that workers might have to count the time against leave accruals.

A Cuomo administration spokesman assured employees that the governor would not offer workers an extra hour for lunch and then ask them to pay for it. Instead, the hour will be counted as work time.

By 6 p.m., the blog post had attracted more than 130 comments and had been shared on Facebook more than 1,000 times.

E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy took to his own blog, The Torch, to calculate that an hour of labor for the entire executive workforce equals at least $4 million in wages and salary.

He archly noted that the letter to Klinsmann was sent on Cuomo's official stationery, which bears the slogan "We Work for the People."